The normal person would go through the menu system and do the built-in SYSTEM RESET function, as that will – we’ve been told by countless wireless store clerks — completely wipe the phone and make it completely safe and usable by anyone else.

See, all that wipe function does is wipe out the applications. It doesn’t necessarily wipe out any of your personal data. Your texts, your photos, your bank account info.

All that information is still stored somewhere on your phone, just waiting for a knowing hacker to pick your phone up cheap and begin to use it. Access your information. Post it on the Internet for big bucks.

So what should you do instead? Well, you can consider not selling your phone at all. You never know when you may need to activate a backup phone if your main phone becomes temporarily unusable or lost.

Or you could use any number of legitimate phone wiping programs that all claim to do a better job that the default Android version does. Which ones those are? We couldn’t tell you. You’re going to have to some digging yourself on that.